Ai Weiwei:Artwork Analysis

Artistic Influences: Chinese Calligraphy and Scroll Painting

Mid-Autumn, Wang Xianzhi Jin Dynasty (265-420CE)

Artistic Influences: Chinese Ceramics

Han Dynasty (206 BCE-220 CE)

Ceramics

Artistic Influences: Pop Art

Ai Weiwei in 1988 in front of Andy Warhol’s Self-Portrait (1966) at the Museum of Modern Art, New York

Brillo Box (1964) by Andy Warhol

Mao Tse Tung (1972) by Andy Warhol

Artistic Influences: Conceptual Art"It became like a symbolic thing, to be‘an artist.’ After Duchamp,

I realized that being an artist is more about a lifestyle and attitude than producing some product."

-Ai Weiwei

Fountain (1917)Marcel Duchamp

Artistic Influences: Installation Art

Ai is influenced by conceptual installation art such as this work by Cuban-American artist Félix González-Torres

Untitled (Placebo) (1991),Félix González-Torres

Artistic Influences: Art as ActivismAi is strongly invested in the notion of art as a means of actively creating social change. Another artist whose work functions to create social change is Krzysztof Wodiczko.

Krzysztof Wodiczko’s Homeless Vehicle Project (1987-89), New York

Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn (1995)

Video-Ai Weiwei-Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn

Coca-Cola Vase (1994)

Colored Vases (2006)

Remembering (2009)

Earthquake in Sichuan (2008-2010)

Untitled, 2011

Sunflower Seeds (2010)

Video: Ai Weiwei: Sunflower Seeds

The Black Cover Book, 1994

The White Cover Book, 1995

The Grey Cover Book, 1997

Weiwei-isms (2012)Quotations from Ai Weiwei

“Everything is art, everything is politics.” –Ai Weiwei

Reference to Mao’s Little Red Book

“In the world today all culture, all literature and art belong to definite classes and are geared to definite political lines. There is in fact no such thing as art for art's sake, art that stands above classes, art that is detached from or independent of politics.”-Mao Zedong